Is it just me who despises Mind Flayers?

[drew_jarvie]

I hate them. They suck. I am in the
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Nearly forgot spoiler notice
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underdark and in the place where the mind flayers hold you captive. I have two questions concerning this.

1. There is a door which says it can only be "opened by some godly might". Is there any other way to open this door thsn to shapeshift into the slayer?

2. How do I then go on to defeat those damned flayers. they are a dawdle when on their own, but i am facing a specific room with 4 Flayers and about four Ugar Hulks (spelling?). I have tried using summons and i have managed to get a few down, although this was only once. The killer spell that gets me is the stun spell that seems to stun people in an area. It sucks.

If its any help, here is my team.

1. MY CHARACTER (PALADIN)
2. MINSC
3. JAHERIA
4. AERIE
5. NALIA
6. IMOEN

Most of them are levels 12-14 (save for Imoen for obvious reasons)

Top three are tanks. Bottom three are spell whizzes.

P.S Did i mention i hate mind flayers?

[ 11-21-2003, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: drew_jarvie ]

[Feral]

Probably safe to say you're not alone.

SPOILERS (obviously):


1. There are two ways to open the door (read the inscription closely). The other involves using the control circlets.

2. Not-so-subtle hint: cloudkill kills umber hulks dead instantly (it's like Raid for hulks). Got a wand of cloudkill handy? After that, the flayers are relatively exposed. There are a lot of different strategies to finish them off (some better than others). One is to use potions of genius to boost your INT for when you inevitably get hit and INT drained. A hasted, invisible character with a good THAC0 and low AC can use hit and run tactics to take care of a number of flayers (I'd keep the others waaay back). Another strategy is to use one of your spare controls circlets on a flayer and let them go at each other.

I'm sure that others will come along in a second and give you lots of other ideas.

[ 11-21-2003, 06:22 PM: Message edited by: Feral ]

[drew_jarvie]

hmm... i see. I have tried the cloudkill method but it just dont work because the room has only one short entrance, leading to a short corridor. I dont havr the time nor the mobility ot manouver before they stun me.

Concerning the door, i forgot about the circlets and in my folly saved the game after morphing inot the slayer. Are there any after effects of this?

[NiceWorg]

After you adapt the right tactics, they become a burger. I left the game on my shelf for six months because of Flayers, got back to it this week, and suddenly they have no chances. [img]smile.gif[/img]

My simple tactic is to summon skeletons to keep a distance, fire arrows, and of course buff my party for melee encounters / psionics. Obviously, you should sleep often, since most of the spells against them are useless.

...

[ 11-21-2003, 06:48 PM: Message edited by: NiceWorg ]

[Dace De'Briago]

Death Spell is pretty good against umber hulks, should kill most of them.

You may want to use Chaotic Commands as a buff spell to prevent your characters getting confused when they cast confusion at you...

Magical Swords and Skeleton Warriors are great summons to use against the mind flayers themselves, they are fairly poor in hand-to-hand combat - it's just the intelligence drain that is a pain. Note that protection from magical weapons works nicely as a defence from being hit.

[Pirengle]

Someone (Six? Xen?) advised me when I encountered Illithid/Umber Hulk packs was to spare the Umber Hulks, at least for a little while.

When you crack a door to a room with both creatures, the Hulks tend to move faster. Keep your tanks by the door, and let the Hulks whack on them. Keep them at bay, but don't kill them. Let your archers take out the illithid swarming behind them. You've blocked the door with the critters that won't hurt you very badly, and left the critters that will hurt you badly at the back.

As for the stun effect, Aerie should know Chaotic Commands. Have her cast that on everyone (or your tanks, at least) and that should keep them from getting stunned. (If you only have enough CCs for a few party members, remember to keep them out in front so the illithid will target them instead of the ones who'll be affected by it.)

[Userunfriendly]

haste skeleton warriors, then mass invisible them...

unless you're using tactics mod with this game, hasted and mass invisible skeleton warriors will go thru them like a dose of linseed oil thru a goose.

chaotic commands and free action if you're getting stunned a lot...also fun is protection from magic weapons...

[Boutte]

Chaotic command is a must for mind flayers, and cloud kill does indeed do the trick on Umber Hulks. The circlets allow you to control Illithids who will open the door for you. There is an easy way to ambush one in a particular room but I don't want to spoil you to much(heheheh!evil laugh).

[Leslie]

Just a thought (if anyone knows): does SI: Enchantment protect prom psionic attacks ?

[Faceman]

Open Door, fire wand of cloudkill, close door
That should take car of the Umber Hulks and if you get stunned you can just wait for it to wear off.
Then try the following

• move in with one buffed up tank (Ring of Free Action, Charm Protection Items, Boots of Speed,...) and employ hit and run tactics either with a ranged weapon or genuine beat-and-run
• gather your party in the next room. Approach so that you're only attacked by one of the flayers and lure them back to your party who is waiting with every available ranged weapon. This tactic again requires the Boots of Speed and Ring of Free Action